DSL modems - leaving them on all the time

Most people leave their DSL/cable modems on all the time. I've noticed that mine gets really hot. I sometimes turn it off during the night. The hotness doesn't matter, does it?

The only problem I've heard of (with turning it off) is that some guy turned his off for 3 weeks and when he came back it wasn't working right, but he fixed it with one phone call.

Reply to
richardfangnail
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From:

| Most people leave their DSL/cable modems on all the time. I've noticed | that mine gets really hot. I sometimes turn it off during the night. | The hotness doesn't matter, does it? | | The only problem I've heard of (with turning it off) is that some guy | turned his off for 3 weeks and when he came back it wasn't working | right, but he fixed it with one phone call.

No electronics like heat. It will shorten its life.

Make sure it is well ventilated.

BTW: My Westell Modem and Linksys BEFSR81 are left on 24x7x365.

Reply to
David H. Lipman

Turning your modem on and off might be harder on it than just leaving it on all the time. The hot-cool-hot-cool state of the circuit board produces a lot of mechanical stress due to thermal expansion and contraction. Think in terms of a slow motion jack hammer effect.

Reply to
Gordon

My Zoom DSL modem has tiny "feet" on the bottom - if you just put it on any table, it wouldn't be ventilated at all. So I put it on some foam blocks so that it's ventilated.

What parts of a modem/TV/stereo make it hot?

Reply to
richardfangnail

You would have to decide whether this was worse than the constant heat of leaving it on all the time.

Would the jackhammer effect be hard on a radio?

Reply to
richardfangnail

From:

| My Zoom DSL modem has tiny "feet" on the bottom - if you just put it on | any table, it wouldn't be ventilated at all. So I put it on some foam | blocks so that it's ventilated. | | What parts of a modem/TV/stereo make it hot?

It will depend upon the circuitry and how its built. For example does it have an AC/DC converter inside or outside the device.

Reply to
David H. Lipman

From:

| | Gordon wrote: |

| | You would have to decide whether this was worse than the constant heat | of leaving it on all the time. | | Would the jackhammer effect be hard on a radio?

What was described usually affects socketed components. The cycle of warm and cold cause what's called Chip Creep. Soldered components and wires are not vulnerable to this effect.

Consumer radios rarely have socketed components and are usually soldered.

Reply to
David H. Lipman

If an electronic device is operating within design tolerances then a constant temperature is almost always better than on off cycles. Of course you can also engineer any device to handle the on/off cycling.

Alluding to the other response about air flow plus my own observations, routers and broadband modems get hot. They are designed to go into homes where people put them in convenient (to the home decor) places without any understanding of the engineering of the device. And most are left on

24/7. So I'm betting they are designed so they do not need much air flow up through the device as long as placed in a location with air circulation around the device. Many of these likely are sitting on the carpet under the "computer desk". Since broad band took off I've only seen 1 modem and/or router die due to what I attributed to heat. And that one was place in the attic of a house and died during a month where the typical outside daytime temperature was in the 90s. All other home failures I've seen were during or soon after thunderstorms.

So I'd not worry about leaving it on 24/7 but also not put it inside a small enclosure.

Reply to
DLR

DSL is designed for many people to work in the network. If you turn it off, you shut down the connection in other ports. When you turn it off, you also remove the orginal IP address.

Reply to
Uno

The DSL customer premises equipment is designed to be powered up indefinitely. It's best to have the modems AC source originate from a good quality "DSL ready" surge protector. The warm to the touch feeling on the modem is normal. Ensure the unit is placed on a desk or table - NOT on a carpeted floor which may obstruct ventilation. If it's too hot to touch, either the modem or the power supply is failing - a possible fire hazard. If the modem has PPPOE built in, it may not immediately reconnect when the unit it powered back up - it shouldn't matter how long it is turned off. The instructions tech support provided via the phone call probably involved manually forcing the modem to connect thru the WEB page of the modem.

King

Reply to
kingpen

Why not ask the experts? T=DCV,

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Laboratories,
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Personally I would not trust claims that DSL modems are "designed" to run 24*7, without proof. Power supplies go south. I just had to replace one for an ethernet switch because it failed. It did not die completely. Its output voltage justed dropped from 12V to 2V and got awfully hot. Occasionally TVs do cause fires and especially in the US many TVs run almost 24*7. Even a cat vomiting on a TV can cause a house fire.

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cat escaped unharmed.)

Since most Internet services for home users in the US are crippled, thanks to companies like COX, Comcast and Verizon, one would think that modems are able to run in standby mode with wake-on-LAN option. Apparently not.

Why not put the modem on a flame resistant surface, with 1m distance to the next object?

Reply to
biggerdigger

From: "biggerdigger"

| Why not ask the experts? | TÜV,

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| Underwriters Laboratories,
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| | Personally I would not trust claims that DSL modems are "designed" to | run 24*7, without proof. Power supplies go south. I just had to replace | one for an ethernet switch because it failed. It did not die | completely. Its output voltage justed dropped from 12V to 2V and got | awfully hot. Occasionally TVs do cause fires and especially in the US | many TVs run almost 24*7. Even a cat vomiting on a TV can cause a house | fire. | |
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| (The cat escaped unharmed.) | | Since most Internet services for home users in the US are crippled, | thanks to companies like COX, Comcast and Verizon, one would think that | modems are able to run in standby mode with wake-on-LAN option. | Apparently not. | | Why not put the modem on a flame resistant surface, with 1m distance to | the next object?

Verizon crippled ?

That's a new one on me !

You must be an, intellectual, engineering student at Old Domionion University. :-)]

Reply to
David H. Lipman

You do not have to be an "engineering student" at ODU to understand section 3.6.5 of Verizon's ToS, although I am sure all of our engineering students understand that it would make perfect sense to utilize a DSL modem which resumes operation from standby after receiving an internal wake-on-LAN signal. How about Microsoft Outlook Express users? Do they check terms, or are they too busy running virus removal tools? :-)

Reply to
biggerdigger

On 22 Jul 2006 18:47:47 -0700, snipped-for-privacy@excite.com put finger to keyboard and composed:

I've added heatsinks to the major chips in my modem (D-Link DSL-302G). During summer they were getting too hot to touch. I've also drilled out the existing inadequate vent holes, and added some new ones to the top of the case. BTW, I haven't noticed, nor did I expect to notice, any performance improvement.

- Franc Zabkar

Reply to
Franc Zabkar

From: "biggerdigger"

| | You do not have to be an "engineering student" at ODU to understand | section 3.6.5 of Verizon's ToS, although I am sure all of our | engineering students understand that it would make perfect sense to | utilize a DSL modem which resumes operation from standby after | receiving an internal wake-on-LAN signal. How about | Microsoft Outlook Express users? Do they check terms, or are they too | busy running virus removal tools? :-)

I don't run the tools. I write them for those that need 'em. :-)

As a Verizon DSL subscriber for over 6 years I think the term "crippled" is not applicaable.

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"3.6.5 You may not use the Broadband Service to host any type of server personal or commercial in nature."

The above is normal for *any* residential ISP.

Reply to
David H. Lipman

No, it is only normal for the monopolists. Speakeasy (US) does not cripple their customers' Internet connection. Neither does Telewest (UK), just to name a few. But the good ISPs are not present everywhere.

Back to the topic ;-) if the modem does not support standby mode w/ WoL, then perhaps a smart power switch might do the trick. Somewhere (Yahoo shopping?) I noticed a power switch with remote control via USB. Simply connect a second device (here the modem) into the switch and connect the switch to the computer with a USB cable. The solution needs no extra software since the switch only checks the power line on the USB cable. If the PC goes off, then the voltage on the USB power line drops to zero. That is probably also true if the PC goes into standby (I have not verified this feature). Quite convenient. Sorry, I lost the URL, but I thought some people might like the idea.

There are also remote power switches for secondary gadgets which check the current through the cable to the primary device. Same idea, just w/o USB line. Too bad that new ATX power supplies have no outlet for the monitor anymore like the good old AT ps did.

And if you are in charge of the dinner, then connect your PC and modem through a wireless remote control power outlet:

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will get everbody's attention. And it might save you from a house fire.

BTW, didn't the new Xboxes have a heat problem? Talk about design of consumer products...

Reply to
biggerdigger

Any time you convert or amplify signals, you need power and not all of it goes "to the good". Much of it turns to heat.

But if you compare most anything that decodes a signal today with 10 or more years ago, the power wasted is much reduced. Digital Signal Processing (DSP) chips are almost free compared to the cost of the devices they are in and this allow you to perform complex math on signals to reject the noise and better extract the desired signal in real time. Thus you have a lot less amplifying and filtering than in the past. Now you boost the signal to where the DSP can massage it and clean it up. This is the single biggest thing that's allowed digital cell phone to get so tiny.

And why so much of your stereo size is now based on a box to hold all the jacks and knobs vs in the past when the size was usually dictated by the size of the stuff in the box.

As to your original question, amplification is where most of the heat comes from. In a stereo, 100 watts of speakers (which likely is 40 or so of RMS real power), well touch an 80 watt light bulb. They get hot.

And this is a way over simplified explanation.

Reply to
DLR

Franc Zabkar wrote in part:

Nor would I expect any. For improved cooling, I mount fan-less equipment with the PCBs vertical and vents top & btm to maximize natural convection.

-- Robert

Reply to
Robert Redelmeier

On Wed, 02 Aug 2006 12:44:07 GMT, Robert Redelmeier put finger to keyboard and composed:

That's fine for an ADSL modem (some of D-Link's models are designed this way), but try that with a DVD player or a STB. In fact I've just installed a DVD player with no vents.

- Franc Zabkar

Reply to
Franc Zabkar

Franc Zabkar wrote in part:

I don't know what you mean by STB, but some DVD players are either top-loading, slot-in or have disk-retention "ears" that permit them to operate disk-vertical.

-- Robert

Reply to
Robert Redelmeier

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